Commando Archive

I am doing the same thing you are. I am a Master Creature Handler above anything else. It was what I wanted from the moment I loaded the game, knew nothing really about it, and started looking at the professions. I obtained MCH a few days back and started looking at what was left available to me.

I decided to test out this build:

Master Creature Handler

Novice Medic

Commando: 0.0.4.0 or 0.4.0.0

The first build is the flamethrower specialist. Run in and kill kill kill. The second build is the one I am interested in theoretically but have not tried it. With this you can send in your pet(s) to group the critters and then blast them with the rocket launcher. You can then use either a pistol/rifle/carbine/or flamethrower to finish the job as needed. PvP the Rocket Launcher can be quite a pleasant little surprise. The downside is, of course the cost. Flamethrowers are use unlimited, while the RL and other Heavy Support weapons are not. I am going to fiddle around with this for now...

In time I may choose to isolate one of the weapon profs (pistol/rifle/carbine) as I can master that and become a straight up level 3 medic. That means less damage per second, but more healing per second. Or you can get the healing levels you want, and then add in novice entertainer and be completely self sufficient.

Thanks guys,
Zeriax, your quandry is mine also.
im currently BE, but that is frustrating and am dropping for now. I am 4,3,2,4 ch going to master, and really wanted to know what was a better support skill for both PVP and PVE. the flamethrower sounds great, but i dont like the range. does the Partical beam have the same range issues and is it expensive to run? Sound like it and that might make me lean towards the Ft.

Thanks again

If you're taking Commando to support CH, then I would recommend flamethrowers. Heavy Support weapons expendables are expensive and can have hugely varient damage. Take into account resistance and armor now, and you'll quickly find that while expendables are great on small things, unless they exploit an armor vulnerability they're useless against medium/heavy armored opponents. Flamer circumvents this by its DoT effects, which allow for much greater flexibility.

how well does the flame thrower do against a lair?

I am almost master CH and am interested in possibly putting a little in Commando to help me do a little more damage myself. I am really interested in taking down both lairs and people faster.

I can only take one line fully up to IV, and am trying to figure out if i should take the FlameThrower or Heavy weapons support lines up. I am really looking to make myself more versatile in both PVE and PVP.

Has anyone else done this and is it viable. Do do this i will have to drop my pistoleer. Am i going to find this acceptable in the long run?

How good is the Heavy particle beam and does it only have a certail number of 'charges' like the acid rifle (and i assume the flamethrower)

Thanks for any info yall may have

Take the Flamethrower line. The damage is huge, and the burn makes it one of the best tools in the PvE or PvP toolkit. You will miss being able to run around and shoot as you were able to as a pistoleer, but you will hit for many times as much and the burn will just be icing on the cake.

Wish I had an edit button...

There are only charges on the Heavy Weapon tree (the particle beam, the rocket launcher etc) The flamethrower is chargeless...so it can be used for a while (until it breaks like every other weapon) and the Heavy Acid rifle is also chargeless, but at this point in time it kinda sucks.

The flamer lacks any armour penetration , it will do a fair bit of damage but you will have to be pretty close to the target. When playing with my pets i prefer to stand back, the further the better.

If you just want to support your pets in pvp/pve then you might want to consider the CH/BH combo, it is cheesier than the CH/Commando route in my opinion but doesnt leave you points to dabble in medic.

If you go master marksman/scout/CH it will allow you to have enough points to get LLC and Pistols 3. The LLC in my opinion is a superior bread and butter weapon than either the acid rifle or flamer. It will do more damage, shoot faster, be more accurate and do more damage. It also has little to no penalties at any range.

With Pistol 3 you get the much maligned eye shot and the scatter pistol is also AP1 from memory, but is more a mid-range weapon.

Either way the BH or Commando will give you a fair bit of damage support for the pets who tank well but dont really do a alot of damage.

I think that going either Commando or BH is a heavy drain on the CH because the requirments of either are at least master marksman and either more invested in scouting or brawling.

Another option is to just focus on one discipline to master. Pick one line from Marksman, either pistol, rifle or carbine and then go either pistoleer, carbineer or rifleman. It will only require one line from marksman and leave you enough extra points to go 4/4/4/4 in medic which you can use to keep yourself alive or cut down on pet downtime.

Even with the pistoleer you get access to the DX pistol i believe, it is an AP1 acid based which is good at close range. Rifle gives you decent long range damage and the rifles provide the best armour penetration plus long range. The problem with rifles/carbines is you take 2.5x damage from melee based attacks.